SCUTTLEBUTT 1332 - May 19, 2003

Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is a
digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock
talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press
releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always
welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.

SAIL TAX
(The follow is a copy of a letter sent by Scott MacLeod, Tour Director of
the Swedish Match Tour, to the sailors on this match racing Tour.)

Dear Swedish Match Tour Sailor:
The ISAF has decided to enact a regulation which they say they have had in
their rules for several years. The regulation (#18) taxes any grade one
match race event a 10% fee on their prize money. Recently, invoices were
sent from ISAF directly to all of the events on the Swedish Match Tour
asking for 10% of their prize money. Unfortunately this 10% tax will be
passed on to the very same sailors that the ISAF claims to represent - you!
This will additionally reduce an already small prize purse which we have
been growing steadily over the last three years of the Swedish Match Tour.
This regulation seems to be directed at the Swedish Match Tour since our
events are the only events which offer any significant prize money in the
sport.

We are not sure why ISAF has decided to enact this regulation and what
services they are providing you, the sailor for this fee. If you are
interested in getting an explanation, we suggest that you and your crew
contact the President of ISAF for an explanation. He can be contacted at:
Paulhenderson141@cs.com

Please note that the Swedish Match Tour had agreed with the ISAF President
at a meeting at the UBS Challenge last August to pay a single fee on behalf
of all of the Swedish Match Tour events to cover this regulation. The
President has decided to ignore that agreement and has elected to tax the
sailors through the events directly. We find this very unfortunate for the
sport and our efforts to try and grow professional sailing. In addition,
the ISAF is also claiming that this money will be used to pay for the
umpires. Umpires at all Swedish Match Tour events currently split $5,000
(approx. $700 per umpire) in addition to their expenses that are covered by
the events. So we are not sure where this additional money will go.

I hope that you will be as concerned about this development as I am. We
will try and keep you posted as we receive further information.

NEWS BRIEFS
* A badly damaged dagger board has forced the crew of the 60-foot
trimaran Gitana to withdraw from the Challenge Mondial Assistance from
Cherbourg, France to Rimini, Italy. They join Fonica and Belgacom on the
sidelines while Groupama leads the remaining nine boats with a 25 mile
advantage over Géant. Bayer CropScience is in third place, 39 miles behind
the leader. http://www.challenge-mondialassistance.com/uk/accueil_uk.htm

* John Podmajersky who sued the Chicago YC to get credit for winning the
Chicago to Mackinac Race has been given a "stern warning" by the race jury
for violating the rules of sportsmanship, and suspended from the yacht
club. Podmajersky called the club 'vindictive" and has appealed the warning
to US Sailing, the sport's national governing body.

* So far, 41 USA athletes have registered for the SPA Regatta for the
Olympic classes held May 21 through 25 and sailed on the IJsselmeer off
Medemblik, The Netherlands. The SPA Regatta is an ISAF World Cup Series
Event and part of Eurolymp. http://sparegatta.org/2003/entries/output2003.asp.

* There will be a rematch of last February's Louis Vuitton Finals between
Team Alinghi's SUI-64 and Oracle BMW Racing's USA-76 on the San Francisco
Bay in mid-September. Alinghi however, will not be taking part in the IACC
Worlds scheduled for the Bay from October 11 to 19 -
http://www.cupineurope.com/LatestNews/2007-Alinghi-EN.htm

HOW YOU CAN WIN THE RACE, ONE LEG AT A TIME
There's a race on in foul weather gear technology, and Team Henri Lloyd's
top-level testers are winning - which means that you'll win the battle for
optimum performance, too. Check out Henri Lloyd's new advanced marine
technology at http://www.henrilloydonline.com

SWEDISH MATCH TOUR
In a long afternoon on Elba's Portoferraio Bay, Magnus Holmberg, former
champion of the Swedish Match Tour (2001), battled shifty conditions,
several course changes and occasional ferry boat wakes to earn his fifth
win, the most of any skipper, in the three year history of the Swedish
Match Tour.

The Toscana Elba Cup - Trofeo Locman was developed to showcase the island
of Elba and enforce the relationship between Italy and the America's Cup
and the championship final, battled between two America's Cup helmsman,
Holmberg of Sweden's Victory Challenge and James Spithill of the OneWorld
Challenge, didn't disappoint. Down to the final run of the final match, the
title was up for grabs. Spithill rounded the windward mark a boat length
ahead of Holmberg, but as the boats split, Holmberg found the fresher air.
"We had a little bit better breeze on the last run and that made the
difference, it was back and forth all day and close all the way until the end."

Spithill, while disappointed with the result, was hardly despondent. "We
came through the hard way, going the low road through the repechage. It was
obviously a close day and some great racing out there." The runner-up
result allowed Spithill to move into second place overall on the Swedish
Match Tour 2002/2003 Rankings, 14 points behind Swedish Match Tour leader
Jes Gram-Hansen of Team Victory Lane, who finished sixth here this week,
and currently has 80 points. The next event on the Swedish Match Tour is
the ACI Htmobile Cup in Split, Croatia, May 27 - June 2. - Shawn McBride,
http://www.swedishmatchtour.com

LIPTON CUP
San Diego YC - Southwestern YC's skipper Geoff Longenecker and his crew,
outsailed 13 other J/105s to win the West Coast's most prestigious
interclub prize by two points over ever-threatening Balboa YC, which had
Jack Franco driving and Dave Ullman and world-class designer Alan Andrews
on board. After Saturday's light and lumpy frustrations, the fleet found
better conditions on the Coronado Roads ocean course, where it was still a
bit bumpy but with clear skies and a breeze of 8-9 knots providing enough
power to drive through the moderate swell and chop. - Rich Roberts,
Yachtracing website, http://www.yachtracing.com/regattas03/liptoncup/051803.htm

CAL CUP
California YC, Marina del Rey, CA - Although Peter Stoneberg is undoubtedly
more comfortable sailing in the big breeze conditions of the San Francisco
Bay than the 5-10 knots that this year's California Cup Regatta provided,
the light air did not seem to be any sort of a determent. With the help of
his tactician, John Kostecki, Stoneberg's Shadow won three of the eight
races and never finished deeper than fifth place, to claim the Cal Cup by
13 points over defending champion Jim Richardson's Barking Mad.

WHAT'S THAT GREAT STARTING SYSTEM?
You hear it more and more. You go to a regatta and the start gun is
consistently clear, accurate, and reliable. How can their RC be that good?
They're probably using Regatta Pro-Start. They push "Start" and RPS does
the rest (six selectable sequences including appendix-Q and Rule-26). The
beeper counts down to perfectly timed blasts from its powerful air-horn.
Why wait to let your Race Committee experience the precision starting power
of Regatta Pro-Start? Call 631-321-6997 or visit www.phcsystems.com

TYBEE 500 RACE
The final leg of the Typee 500 was a 100.7 mile upwind beat in 15 knots of
wind and heavy, choppy seas. Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce on Tybee
Island went into this leg with a slim 15-minute lead, but finished first
and cinched the series - winning by more than 32 minutes. Kirk Newkirk /
Rod Waterhouse on Key Sailing finished in second place in the series with
Castrol sailed by John Casey and Jay Sonnenklar taking third overall. The
final race kept most of the 27 teams on the water for 12 hours. The top
four teams all sailed Inter 20 catamarans - Catamaran Sailor website, full
story: http://www.catsailor.com/Tybee500/Tybee500.htm
Event website: http://www.tybee500.com/

BOW STICKERS, SIGNAGE, BOAT GRAPHICS AND REGATTA GEAR
The Pirate's Lair is your one-stop event supplier. From graphic design to
t-shirts, foulies, sponsorship signage and newsletters. If you are planning
an event, or just have a boat and team signed up, check out our services.
Call (888) SAIL-BUM for a catalog or discuss your options, or log on to
http://www.pirateslair.com/sailing

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com)
(Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be
edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room or a
bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best
shot and don't whine if others disagree.)

* From J.W.Tyrrel: I read Ken Legler's offering in Scuttlebutt 1331 of a
vision of controlled environment stadium sailing for the "benefit" of
making sailing a spectator sport. The end goal I trust is to turn sailing
or rather professional sailing into a marketable media event. With no
disrespect to Ken's contributions, stature or standing in our community,
several things struck me right away. First why would anyone outside the
sailing community watch such an affair? Rules in most other sports are not
by any means as complex nor as interpretive as in sailing thus how would
John Q. Public even stand a chance of knowing what is going on.

Then there is the NASCAR angle of collisions and capsizes, even at 15 knots
this all appears to happen in slow motion on camera so I think we can cross
that of the list as a big draw. Toss in removing the challenge of managing
waves, wind and weather and we have just lost half or more of the base
audience, those adventurers that are sailors. Seems to me what we have left
is a sterile and engineered version of a once paramount competition between
man vs himself, his peers and the whims and forces of nature. Now can
someone please explain to me how this furthers the sport of sailing,
professional sailing or sailing in general as a viable spectator sport?

* From Jim Champ, UK: Ken Legler's suggestions have only come from team
racing enthusiasts. With its high dependance on the subtlety of rules and
"1st boat doesn't necessarily win" I can't see team racing being very
accessible to the causal viewer, no matter how compelling it is to the
afficionado. The public don't actually like the team format - think of the
controversy thrown up by team orders in Formula One. (Maybe you haven't
heard that in the US).

The only time I have *ever* seen the general public watching sailboat
racing with interest was at a Championship in Wales in which a relatively
small fleet of very distinctively coloured boats were racing very close
inshore. The public could and were following their favourite boat ("I like
the green one with the black sail" - "I like the blue and yellow one" -
"I'm following the one with purple camouflage") round the track in shortish
course races where the boats were distinguishable all the way round. And
also boats that were extremely quick and spectacular to watch. I also don't
know about flat water, waves make for big spectator appeal (remember how
Freo was the only AC really worth watching on TV).

* From Patrick Broderick: Amen to the East Coast bias Rich Roberts points
out so well.

* From Ron "Bart" Bartkoski: Bravo, to Rich Roberts for actually doing
something about something that the rest of us just bitch about.

* From Brian Raney (re Rich Roberts' regional bias story): Gee, as a Laser
sailor now living in the NE part of the country, I thought we were the ones
who dropped off the continent. The previous Olympic trials were in San Fran
as were most of its qualifiers. This time around, it's Texas. Doesn't seem
quite right, given that the NE has the most Laser sailors,

* From Pierre Heliasre (re Rich Roberts' story - East Wind Leaves Western
Sailors Adrift): I know it is too late to change anything, and maybe
everybody is happy, however, when you look at the qualification system for
the Olympic Laser Trials, 32 sailors will be able to compete, including the
top eight of the US Sailing ranking, the winner of the O'Day champ, and,
for the next 23: <
Laser Gulf Coast Championships (June 13-15 at Texas Corinthian Yacht Club
in Kemah, *TEXAS*); and the top 10 finishers, not previously qualified,
from the Laser North Americans (June 27-July 1 at the Corpus Christi Yacht
Club in Corpus Christi, *TEXAS*). The Last Chance Regatta, scheduled for
October 23-26 at Rush Creek Yacht Club in Heath, *TEXAS*, will qualify
eight finishers, not previously qualified>> We may wonder how "lucky" the
Texans are, and why they are so lucky. I am sure all these venues are
great, however, that's a lot of regattas in Texas. See you in Texas, where
the conditions in November are similar to the conditions in August in
Athens? http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2003/olympictrialsannounced.htm

* From Susan Daly (edited to our 250-word limit): While Rich Roberts is
correct in his statement that there will only be one US Sailing
championship on the West Coast in 2003, it is worth looking back at where
the US Sailing championships have been held over the past couple of years.
Speaking for the US Sailing youth and adult championships that Vanguard
sponsors, the following have been held on the West Coast since 2000:

While there is a hiatus in 2004, the following championships are scheduled
to be back on the West Coast in 2005: Bemis/ Smythe, Leiter and O'Days. And
in 2006 the Youth Championships and Ida Lewis are scheduled.

The area rotation for the Championships is set several years in advance to
ensure that the events are spread around the country. US Sailing maintains
a planning calendar for all of their championships at
www.ussailing.org/Championships. It outlines the areas and host clubs (if
set) through 2006. There is also information and bid packets for clubs
interested in bidding for a championship. I know that the Committee Chairs
would welcome bids for any of the events still looking for host clubs.

THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
In America, anyone can be president. That's one of the risks you take.